Perfect Fit
by AnotherWannabeWriter
Summary: The next few steps for Rita and Iain with a few twists and turns along the way.
1. Chapter 1

**Thank you for reading and reviewing my previous fics!**

She sat at her desk with her head hidden in her hands; her shoulders slumped. Directly in front of her was a small sample of urine and a pregnancy test. How on earth she would even begin to try and explain this situation to someone if they burst into the office with no warning she had no idea; but she was far too preoccupied to have to worry about that right now. She'd been sitting in this position for ten minutes now, she still couldn't bear to look at what the result was; she wasn't even sure what result she was hoping for. She knew that she would love to be a mum, but she was pretty sure that now was not the right time for it. It was definitely the right guy though she knew that for sure; but whether he would feel the same way about it she didn't know. There were just too many unanswered questions and concerns all to be confirmed or refuted by a few drops of her urine. There was a sharp knock at her door that brought her back to the present.

"Just a minute!" She cursed under her breath and jumped up and grabbed the offending items; accidently glancing at the result as she did. She paused; she couldn't believe it, she sank back down into her seat staring, still not entirely sure how she felt about it.

Robyn had obviously decided that she was being kept waiting for too long so let herself into the office. Rita managed to hastily shove the test into her pocket just in time. She pulled her jacket off the back of her chair and walked straight past Robyn, and out of the office, with no acknowledgement of her.

"Hey Rita! Wait up, I needed to talk to you!" She called after her but Rita didn't appear to hear and instead kept on walking straight out of the main doors and headed towards the ambulance station.

She spotted Dixie who was cleaning out the back of one of the ambulances. "Is he in there?" She gestured towards the common room.

"Who? Norman?" Dixie ribbed her. Rita glared at her and carried on walking. "Yeah course he is, no funny business though!"

"Oh har har, you're not funny" She called back over her shoulder.

Iain was lounging on the sofa reading a magazine and sipping on a cup of tea, a plate of Dixie's home baking sat untouched on the table. Now Rita was here she wasn't even sure what she was going to say, she had no idea where she was going to begin, how she was going to explain everything. Iain was completely engrossed in his magazine so didn't see her standing in the doorway for several moments giving her time to ponder, and second-guess herself. He glanced up as he turned the page and spotted her.

"Alright?" He checked out her expression; he was confused as to what she was doing here, her shift had only started half an hour ago, there was definitely no way she was due a break yet. She still didn't say anything choosing instead to narrow her eyes at him as if she was trying to work something complicated out. "Is something wrong? Has something happened?" His mind raced through all the potential disasters that had brought her here.

She shook her head at him and finally moved further into the room sitting on the other sofa so that she was facing him. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the test placing it firmly on the table in front of him waiting for his reaction.


	2. Chapter 2

His expression changed from confusion through realisation to his eyes lighting up and him grinning; she was more than happy with that.

"Is this for real?" He picked up the test and examined it more closely as if he thought it would change if he looked at it from another angle, in another light. "Rita?" She still hadn't spoken.

She allowed a small smile to emerge on her face and gently nodded at him. That was all the confirmation he needed; he threw himself at her ecstatically, engulfing her small frame in his arms; squeezing her tightly. He quickly detached himself though, realising that in his elation he had forgotten to consider how she was feeling about it all.

"Hang on" he held her at arm's length, "how are you feeling about this?" He considered her with extreme concern; making sure he completely understood everything that she was feeling.

"I mean it's not ideal is it, we've not been together long, this wasn't the plan of this relationship was it?" Iain felt his face fall, his shoulders drooped. Rita continued. "But I am happy" Iain allowed his spirits to lift again; Rita laughed at the range of emotions he had experienced in such a short time. "I wasn't sure before I came here, but yeah I'm definitely happy about this."

Iain sat beside her still clutching the test, turning it over in his hands. He really couldn't believe it; he was going to be a father, to an actual child, with Rita being the mother. If you'd told the Iain that he was a few years previous, what was going to happen in his life, he would've never believed you. Since everything that had happened in Afghanistan and with Sam he thought his entire life was falling apart and that he would never feel happiness again; all he could think was that he was glad he stuck around, carried on, otherwise he would have missed out on all this. Everything was working out and he could not be any more content. They continued sitting in a comfortable silence for a few moments both contemplating the situation.

"Right, I better be getting back before they start getting suspicious." Rita leant forward getting ready to leave but Iain held onto her arm and pulled her back.

"No, wait" His eyes roamed her face pondering what his next move was going to be. "If I don't do this now you'll just think it was because of this." He waved the test at her; he couldn't believe that he was going to do this right here in the ambulance station; he would never have planned something quite like it.

"What do you mean?" She felt herself start to panic about what he was going to do.

Iain reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box placing it with the test on the table. "I've been carrying this about for, like, the past week trying to come up with the perfect moment to do this." Rita was stunned; she was just staring at the box. "Like you said, I know that it really hasn't been long but it feels right doesn't it, yeah? And it's not like we didn't know each other before. If I don't do this now you'll just think it's out of obligation for the baby but it's not, I love you Rita and well" Iain's words were tumbling out in a mess.

"Iain." Her voice was warning him not to continue; she was scared about where he was going with this although she could make a pretty good guess; but more than that she was scared about what her response was going to be.

"I know that this really isn't the perfect moment, and you deserve so much more than a half-assed attempt but" he opened up the box to reveal a small, but perfect for Rita, ring.


	3. Chapter 3

"Yes" The word slipped out without any conscious effort.

"I haven't asked yet, bit premature!" Iain laughed at her.

"Sorry" Rita was so taken aback by the strange turning of events that had happened already that day that she hardly knew what she was doing. She felt like she was floating; none of it felt real, yet it all felt right. "But yes"

"Really?" Iain could swear that his heart was going to burst out of his chest it was beating so fast. This was definitely not how he had envisioned it, but he realised that none of the fancy stuff mattered with Rita. All that mattered was that they were there, that they were together, and that she said yes.

"Yeah." She grinned at him and his disbelief. "Aren't you gonna put it on then?" She held her hand out to him.

"Wha…oh yeah" He took the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger not breaking eye contact whilst he did it. "Perfect fit." He leant towards her and placed a chaste kiss on her lips.

She pulled away from him "I really do have to go now." Her eyes flicked up to the clock on the wall, she had been there for only twenty minutes but her whole world had been flipped upside down. Everything had fallen into place.

"You leaving that on?" He nodded towards her new adornment.

"Well I'm not changing my mind already am I!" She laughed at him.

"They don't even know about us being together though"

"Well I can just contribute to the rumour mill" He looked at her surprised, he knew that she didn't really like people talking about her and how uncomfortable it had made her in the past. "I'm never, ever taking this off you know." She needed to keep it on so she could look at it frequently and remind herself how well everything was now working out; she really didn't care what people thought anymore. "I'll see you later." She kissed him goodbye and exited with a spring in her step.

Iain picked up the test she'd left behind and shook his head at it before heading over to his locker and slipping it in with the ring box.

Dixie poked her head into the room "C'mon mate we've got a shout."

Once back in her office, Rita collapsed into her chair and smiled to herself holding her hand up to admire her new ring; she had no idea how she was going to get any work done with that distracting her all day. She hid her hand in her lap and picked up the paperwork she was supposed to have finished already that day.

After a short while she was overcome with a wave a nausea; she had temporarily forgotten about the pregnancy and rushed to the toilets, only just making it in time. She was really not looking forward to the next couple of months and trying juggle her work with the secret foetus growing inside her. She looked at herself in the mirror to check for any tell-tale signs of her pregnancy, took a deep breath, looked at her ring again and exited the Ladies.


	4. Chapter 4

"Where have you been Rita?" She could tell that Charlie was not happy with her, but she still had to fight her emotions to hide the smile that was threatening to cover her face. "We've had a major RTC and Robyn has had to leave for a family emergency so you're needed in resus."

"Sorry Charlie, I've been doing paperwork" Charlie eyed her suspiciously but luckily for Rita they were interrupted by Dixie and Iain entering with a patient.

"Right this is Alan, 83, he had a fall in the shopping centre." Dixie started rattling off the usual medical jargon that was second nature to her but out of the corner of her eye she spotted a sparkle coming from Rita's hand. Well that explained Iain's exceptionally cheerful demeanour since she'd left the ambulance station. She would be having words with him later; fancy him not mentioning it, usually he was bouncing off the walls with talk of Rita. With the patient safely deposited in cubicles Dixie turned to talk to Iain only to realise he was nowhere to be seen.

"You okay?" Iain asked Rita in such a serious tone that she laughed back at him.

"I left you barely an hour ago now, you really think my mood has changed all that much?" She patted him on his arm and turned to head towards resus. His gaze remained on the doors long after she had disappeared behind them; he didn't notice Dixie sneak up beside him.

"There you are mate, I see congratulations are in order for you, kept that one quiet didn't you?" Dixie nudged him in the ribs.

Iain held a finger up to his lips indicating for her to be quiet.

"Well it's not exactly a secret is it mate, she's wandering around flaunting a sparkler!"

"Yeah, well still shush." He ushered her out of the ED as she began complaining about the fact he hadn't told her about it.

Rita continued with her shift not completely naïve to the strange glances she was getting from everyone; she tried to pretend that there was nothing unusual occurring and got on with her job, working twice as hard to make up for her absence earlier. She was approaching the reception desk to pick up a patient discharge form when she realised she was the topic of conversation, she paused just out of sight.

"My money's still on Connie though, there's definitely a spark there I'm telling you." Big Mac postulated to Louise and Noel.

Louise rolled her eyes at him. "I didn't even know she was seeing someone."

"Yeah well she's a dark horse isn't she though, remember her ex-husband." Noel replied with a knowing air. "What do you think Charlie?" Noel turned to Charlie who had just approached the reception desk to collect some patient notes.

"What?" He looked confused.

"About Rita's secret fiancé"

"I think that you should stop gossiping about it and get on with your jobs" He looked up and saw Rita hiding around the corner clearly listening in the said gossiping. He lowered his voice. "Especially since your person of interest is listening in." He nodded towards Rita. She glared at him for ruining her hiding place and continued to the desk to pick up the forms.

"Come on Rita, at least give us a clue!" She simply smiled slyly at them and slinked off.

"I'm telling you, it's Connie."


	5. Chapter 5

A week had passed since the day of the proposal and still no one had worked out it was Iain; she didn't know why they hadn't announced it. It just entertained her knowing that she had the power to hide it from everyone, especially since over the last couple of days her sickness had become so much worse, she needed something to keep her entertained. She felt like she was spending the majority of her time slumped over a toilet bowl lately; whoever had come up with this term morning sickness was the bane of her life right now. She had morning, afternoon, evening, and night sickness; she and Iain hadn't had a complete night sleep for the whole week.

She was in cubicles checking on her patients when she felt another, now very familiar, wave of nausea overcome her so she excused herself and rushed to the toilets; she was starting to think that maybe she should put a reserved sign on the cubicle door when she felt herself go light-headed and that was the last thing she was aware of before being checked over by Zoe in resus.

"What happened?" She tried to sit up but felt like her head was split open. She reached up and touched her forehead feeling it come away wet; there was definitely blood there.

"We think that you passed out in the toilets and hit your head on the bowl, a patient found you." Zoe looked at her carefully. "It's good to have you back with us though."

"Hmm" Rita began to close her eyes feeling an overwhelming desire to sleep before she had a realisation and her eyes shot open again. "Zoe!"

"Yeah" Zoe was distracted writing on Rita's notes.

"I'm pregnant" Zoe did not appear surprised; in fact she smiled.

"I thought so, don't worry we haven't done anything that is likely to cause any harm to the baby. I think you fainted because you're dehydrated, have you had a lot of sickness?" Rita nodded, Zoe continued. "But we're going to have to admit you for a few days under observation."

"You haven't told anyone else have you?" Zoe shook her head. "Good I'm not far along."

"Did you want me to call Iain for you?"

"He doesn't know I'm in here?"

Zoe shook her head again. "He's not down as next of kin is he, and you haven't been in here long."

It turned out that there was no need for Iain to be called because he had just entered the ED with another patient. As he passed the reception desk he heard Rita's name mentioned.

"Who was it that found Rita then?" Robyn was talking to Lofty.

"Mrs Jenkins, apparently, she was in the ladies."

Iain dropped back leaving Dixie to carry on with the patient handover. "What was that about Rita?" He could barely hide the panic that was bubbling in his voice.

"Oh, er, well" Lofty stuttered.

"Where is she?" Iain was anxious to find her, to check that she was okay; he was hoping he had misinterpreted their conversation.

Lofty then mumbled something about confidentiality that Iain didn't quite catch.

"You know we can't tell you that, sorry Iain." Robyn was more eloquent in responding; but Iain still ignored her already on his way to resus. Robyn's eyes widened in realisation and hit Lofty on the arm in her excitement.

"Ow, what was that for?" Robyn speedily rattled of her theory.


	6. Chapter 6

Iain knew that he would search the entirety of the hospital in his determination to find her if he had to. Luckily there was no need for that though because he spotted her as soon as he entered resus.

"Rita?" He rushed across to her with concern and tears already forming in his eyes "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just fancied a lie down." She chuckled at him. If she was joking she was definitely fine so he allowed himself to relax and smiled back at her. Zoe slowly backed out of the make shift cubicle they had created to try and give Rita some privacy from the rest of the staff gawking at her. He held onto her hand but still didn't let his gaze drop from her; Rita was concerned that he was going to remain like that for the rest of their lives making sure that nothing else happened to her.

"I'm fine Iain, stop looking at me like that, I just fainted and hit my head that's all" Iain exhaled relaxing even more. "The baby'll be fine too." She added under her breath just before Connie appeared at her bedside.

"Okay Rita we're going to move you into cubicles now" Connie briefly checked over Rita's notes as Max started preparing her bed for the move. Connie glanced up noticing the Iain was still there. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?" Iain glared back at her and she looked at their intertwined hands clocking onto what was going on. "Okay, well if you're staying at least make yourself useful and help push."

As they moved through the ED they were followed by stares and whispers.

"Oh God, I'm so embarrassed." Rita covered her face with her hand, applying the logic that if she couldn't see them they wouldn't be able to see her. "Why did this have to happen?"

"Eh, you know the rule of this ED, we all have to be a patient at least once!" Iain attempted to cheer her up. Rita began to chuckle but started to feel light-headed again; panic grew in her eyes.

"Rita?" Iain knew that something was up. "Connie!"

"Okay, her BP is dropping fast; let's get her back to resus! Someone get Dr Hanna" Connie had an urgency in her voice. "You need to stay outside" she managed to tell Iain as he attempted to follow them in; he ignored her and instead stood in the middle of the room, staring, stunned. She'd only fainted, she was supposed to be fine, Zoe rushed in pushing past Iain seeing that Rita was drifting in and out of consciousness.

"Right where are her CT scans?" Connie asked.

"We didn't do one." Zoe replied, she knew that she should tell Connie why but she was interrupted just as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Why on earth not!" Connie was furious, Zoe looked over at Iain; his face had gone as white as a sheet. "Right let's get her to CT then, I'm concerned there may be a bleed we missed." Connie looked pointedly at Connie.

"Hang on a second." Zoe leaned down to talk to Rita, hoping that she had enough consciousness to understand. "Rita, we're going to have to give you a CT scan, do you understand?"

"No." Rita managed to get out. "No scan." She was obviously distressed. Connie stood back in disbelief, Zoe sighed in resignation.


	7. Chapter 7

"Right this is ridiculous, she needs the scan" Connie was getting impatient.

"Let me try and talk to her." Iain walked across to Rita's bed, tears in his eyes. He leaned down to whisper gently in Rita's ear. "Rita, you need this, you know you need this, I need you, please, I can't lose you." Rita managed to shake her head in a barely perceptible sign of dissent.

"She's deteriorating, we're going to lose her if we don't act now." Connie was pacing the room, frustrated that she was not being allowed to get on with her job.

Iain stepped back from the bed; he couldn't believe that Rita was refusing this, she knew the risk was minimal; it felt like she was self-sabotaging herself for some unknown reason, he stormed furiously out of resus and left the building needing to give himself some head space. Once outside he punched the wall so forcefully that blood immediately began flowing out of his knuckles. He stared at his fist as if he was surprised that it hurt, as if he was surprised that he was still alive; that this definitely was not a horrible nightmare. He leaned his back up against the wall and slid down it until he was crouching in a ball. He didn't know what he would do if he lost her; why did she have to be so stubborn all the time. He knew that her determination to live life on her own terms was one of the reasons he loved her; but this was different, this was an actual matter of life or death. The tears he'd been trying to hold back in resus were now streaming down his face.

"Iain?" Dixie had gone looking for him. "I think you should go back inside, mate." She crouched down beside him. "I've just checked in on her. It's not looking good." Iain didn't appreciate the level of pity he could hear in her voice.

"But she was fine, they said she was fine, she was laughing." Iain couldn't believe what had happened in such a short time. He looked at Dixie hoping to see some kind of reassurance but Dixie could do nothing to help him.

"You know better than most how quickly things happen in this place, but she needs you now, you should be with her." Dixie stood up again patting Iain on the shoulder hinting for him to follow her. He stayed crouched not wanting to accept what Dixie was trying to tell him. "Iain, come on mate" Dixie's voice cracked as she spoke, she turned to hide her face from him and walked back into the ED. He reluctantly followed, terrified of what scenes he was going to witness.

Looking through the window he saw far more members of staff than usually necessary attempting to resuscitate Rita; he could see that the monitoring screens weren't showing an optimistic picture. He could feel his entire body shaking with emotions, he knew he had to be in there. For when she came back to them, he told himself, because he was trying so hard not to consider the alternative. He entered the room and went to her side, Zoe was performing compressions; he picked up Rita's hand and brought it to his lips.

"Okay let's see if we've got an output." All the staff in resus fell silent as Zoe checked. Those were the worst, and longest, few moments that Iain had ever experienced before.


	8. Chapter 8

"Yep there's one there." A collective sigh of relief could be felt around the entire room, and the whole of the ED as the news spread.

"So, she's going to be okay?" Iain was allowing himself to be hopeful.

"There's still a long way to go, sorry Iain" Zoe replied gently, sadness still in her eyes, but Iain already knew that really.

"Plus she still needs the scan." Despite her relief in the fact that Rita was back with them, Connie was still not impressed with what had happened earlier. "And then more than likely surgery, we're definitely not anywhere near out of the woods yet." Zoe glared at her and her frankness.

Rita's eyes flickered open, Iain felt her gently squeeze his hand, he winced getting a stark reminder that it was still injured from his own stupidity; if Rita's tiny squeeze could hurt that much he didn't like to think about what damage he had actually done to it. He looked down at her.

"Should get that checked out." Rita whispered barely audible, before her eyes flickered shut again, the slight ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Yeah and you still need the CT." Iain used his other hand to sweep her fringe out of her eyes.

Rita nodded, "Okay" she didn't know why she refused before, she had momentarily lost her senses and simply become protective; but somehow her mental processes were clearer now and she could make the right decision; not one clouded by instinct.

"Right let's get her to CT then, quickly everyone." Connie took charge; jumping into action, she was not missing this opportunity, she held opened the doors for Rita's bed to be pushed through. "And anyone who is not part of the treatment of this patient, get on with your work." She was addressing the crowd of staff that had collected outside of resus; watching the drama unfold.

Rita's CT came back with evidence of the fact she had a brain haemorrhage and she was taken into surgery to alleviate the swelling and to stop the bleed. Iain spent the entire time following her around the hospital; sticking as close to her side as he was allowed, pushing boundaries, determined to make up for his momentary freak out earlier. Determined to make sure nothing else happened to her without him knowing.

Much later when she awoke from the surgery he was still there, holding vigil for her, except he had fallen asleep; the day had taken its toll on him and caused complete mental and physical exhaustion. She smiled about the fact that he was still there. His head was resting on her stomach. His injured hand was still in hers.

"I told you to get that checked out." Iain opened his eyes and looked at her; he had never been so happy to hear her nagging him about something.

"Alright?" He asked her.

"Alright." She replied.


	9. Chapter 9

Several months later and everything was going much more smoothly; Rita's surgery had been successful and there were no detrimental effects to the baby. She had returned to work as soon as she was allowed and, although she was cautious to begin with, she soon got back into the swing of it and was back in the frontline; Iain had eventually given up on checking on her so frequently, seemingly deciding that she was probably going to be alright. More likely however he had finally had enough of Rita telling him off for constantly making her jump when he kept on sneaking up on her, or peering around corners to check on her, and Dixie being annoyed at him for disappearing all the time.

Rita's pregnancy was going much better, especially once most of the sickness had subsided; her scans were showing that the baby was healthy and developing at the right rate. They hadn't found out the sex of the baby, not really understanding what the fuss was about; it made no difference to them, the baby was going to be raised, and loved, the same regardless of its sex. However, they had spent hours arguing over names; Rita wanting a more unusual name and Iain sticking relatively traditional; despite this they had managed to shortlist about twenty names, getting increasingly shorter as they met awkward patients with the names on their list.

Her protruding bump had become a favourite with both the staff and patients at the hospital; she could barely go a shift without someone wanting to feel a kick. Iain was the worst though, every time he saw her he would insist on speaking to her stomach, sometimes graduating to singing to it. It was difficult to get on with her admin work with someone singing entire albums to her stomach or reading novels; Iain claimed it was because he wanted their baby to have the best possible start in life and he had read, in one of his numerous parenting books, that the more a baby was spoken to whilst in the womb the more intelligent they would become. Even though she knew that he was probably wrong Rita humoured him and let him get on with it because, however annoying, sometimes it was just nice to have him around. He was forever spouting new ideas that would apparently help the baby, he went as far as rearranging all of the furniture in their whole house in the middle of the night; having read that the correct Feng Shui would stop the baby crying too much once it was born. Rita had found him in the morning asleep in the bath muttering about how the toilet was in the wrong place.

Iain had insisted on them getting a proper house together so that he could spend every second of his spare time with her as well; choosing to spend evenings with her, in front of the television, over going out with his friends. Dixie frequently wound him up about this; she couldn't believe how much he had settled down. They made sure not to nest too much though; on the rare occasion that they both had the day off they made sure to do something more adventurous; Rita enjoyed going out on the water, especially sailing, whereas Iain liked driving to remote locations and just going on walks taking lots of photos. He had been trying to convince Rita that they should get a dog, to take on the walks, once the baby was born, Rita was more rational and thought it would probably be too much work for them all at once. Iain argued back with quotes from his parenting books again that said having a pet would help with the baby's development. Rita knew that she would have to give in eventually; Iain had even got Dylan involved with him lecturing her with the benefits of owning a dog every time they had a patient together.

Rita had met Iain's sister, who despite being protective of her brother, was pleased that he had found someone like Rita. She could tell that they complimented each other; they disagreed enough to not be boring but agreed enough to be happy. She saw how much he was looking forward to the baby and his future now; she had never seen him so keen about the future since he was a child. Iain was relieved to find that Rita got on well with his sister, they had a lot in common and would even call each other up for a chat without his intervention; the two most important people in his life actually liked each other.

Things were definitely going well for them.


	10. Chapter 10

There was a knock at the door; Rita glanced up at the clock, she wasn't expecting any visitors. She thought it might be Dixie as she sometimes showed up unannounced but she should still be working. She put down the paintbrush; she had decided to redecorate the nursery having changed her mind about the shade of yellow they had chosen deeming it too aggressive. As she opened the door she couldn't have been more surprised by the person standing on her doorstep.

"Aren't you going to invite me in then?" Mark grinned at her disbelief.

"What are you doing here?" Rita managed to get out defensively. "How did you know where I am?"

"I was in Holby for work, bumped into an old mate." He looked at his feet awkwardly. "One of the few left who can still stand the sight of me, said he'd heard you'd moved here." He returned his gaze to Rita. "Thought it was worth a shot."

"What do you want Mark?" Rita was not planning on letting him into her house; she didn't want this fresh start, that was going so well, to be tainted with her past.

"Just a catch up." He eyed her bump. "Seems a lot has changed with you."

"You can't just show up here, at my home, I thought you were long gone." Still refusing to give any indication that he was welcome to hang around.

"I just wanted to see how you were." Mark was becoming more uncertain about showing up.

"Yeah, well I'm fine." Rita was aware of the fact that this was the first time she'd been in his presence since his conviction that she was actually telling the truth. "I'm really fine." She even felt a smile growing on her face as she said it.

Mark appeared taken aback, Rita didn't know how he'd expected her to react but this was clearly not it. Maybe he had hoped he would unnerve her a bit, get an ego boost from her still pining for him; she knew that he would be jealous of her finally moving on, but all she could think was that she needed to get back to her painting before the brush dried up.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come." Mark looked at her carefully. "I am glad you're happy Rita, you do deserve happiness." He took a step back heading towards his van parked in her driveway. "I'm just sorry it's not me making you happy."

Rita closed the door. She felt like she was closing a door to her past; that eventually she could move on, put everything behind her. She leaned up against the wall and her eyes began to fill with tears; when she was with Mark she thought that he was the one, of course she did, and she wouldn't have married him otherwise. There were still feelings there but they were no longer feelings of love like they were before; they were feelings of nostalgia. Memories and anecdotes of a person that she used to be, of a life that didn't quite feel real anymore. She sighed and brought herself back to the present, remembering that she was supposed to be painting.

Once she was back upstairs with the brush in her hand again she felt a twinge in her stomach. Her eyes widened.


	11. Chapter 11

"It's happening Iain" Rita's words were rushed. "It's time." She was hastily packing a few essentials into a suitcase; attempting to balance her phone on her shoulder; she cursed to herself as she dropped it in amongst babygrow's.

"What's happening?" Iain's signal was cutting in and out. "Dix pull up for a bit would ya?"

""C'mon Iain we're on a shout."

"Just for a sec, I can't hear Rita."

"Speak to her on your own time!" Iain glared at Dixie.

Rita picked up her phone again just in time to hear Iain speak to her again "Rita? Can I call you back?"

"No!" Rita was getting agitated; she needed him to take her to the hospital. "I need you to come and get me."

"What? Why, where are you?" Iain was getting anxious, he didn't like the emotion that was present in Rita's voice.

"I'm at home, I was painting, and the baby, it's time Iain." Rita groaned in pain as another contraction overwhelmed her.

"You're in labour?" Iain almost shouted down the phone, she wasn't due for several weeks still. At Iain's outburst Dixie's head turned. "Dix, we need" but he didn't have to continue, Dixie was already on her radio.

"3006 to control, we're no longer able to attend the call, I repeat, we're no longer able to attend the call." Dixie turned the ambulance around in the road and started towards Rita and Iain's house; leaving the siren and lights on deciding that this was classed as an emergency.

When they arrived Iain didn't even wait for the ambulance to completely stop before jumping out of the vehicle. He was already inside before Dixie had managed to shut off the engine. Rita was sitting on the sofa with her maternity suitcase beside her; she was extremely calm considering she was supposed to be in labour.

"Are you okay?" Iain rushed to her side and knelt down on the floor beside her.

"Yeah" she smiled at him and rested her hand on his cheek fondly. "Let's go then." Iain narrowed his eyes at her, a sudden realisation hitting him.

"Did you say you've been painting?" Rita nodded sheepishly at him. "I checked with you so many times that you were happy with that shade of yellow before I did it!" Rita laughed at him feeling ashamed before she felt another contraction and her face contorted with the pain.

"I changed my mind" Rita continued as if nothing had happened. "It looked too bright."

"Eh? You said you liked that it was bright." Dixie entered the house confused as to why it sounded like they were arguing. "You said bright room, bright child."

"Sorry, less bright room, less headaches."

"You shouldn't really have been painting anyway! What if"

Dixie interrupted him. "Errm, now's not really the time is it kids." she couldn't hide the amusement in her voice. "I heard someone needed an ambulance?" She looked pointedly at them; they felt like they were in trouble. "Okay let's go have a baby then."


	12. Chapter 12

The traffic was particularly bad; Iain cursed to himself for choosing a bigger house further from the hospital. Rita's contractions were getting worse and closer together; Iain was no midwife but he knew that she was close to being ready to start pushing; he couldn't believe how quickly this was all happening. Looking at Rita's face he could tell that she could not believe it either. They had both assumed that she would be in labour for several hours like most other people. Iain was becoming concerned that something was wrong; he had escorted several people in labour to the hospital and none of them had moved along as fast as Rita was. The ambulance came to a standstill.

"Can't we go another way Dix?" Iain called from the back of the ambulance.

Dixie looked around for possible exit routes but saw none. "Sorry mate we're stuck in this now." She spoke in resignation, inwardly cursing to herself for not using her initiative and choosing a different route. "How's she doing?"

"She can speak for herself!" Rita was irritated that everything was going wrong; she'd gone to all the classes, ate the right foods, and prepared a perfect birthing plan involving a lot of painkillers. It was all a waste. All she could think about in that moment was the fact that her body was telling her she needed to start pushing, but she really didn't want to give birth in the back of an ambulance with Iain the only medic around. Another contraction overtook her and she screamed; mostly because of the pain, but partly in annoyance.

"That great then." Dixie chewed her lip in frustration.

"Iain" Rita grabbed onto his shirt pulling him to her. "I'm going to have to do this, I can't wait." He pulled an expression of extreme uncertainty. "C'mon Iain I need you, plus you're not the one about to push a human out of you so don't you dare look at me like that!"

"Okay." Iain had gone as white as a ghost at the prospect of delivering his child; despite all of his experience, he had never delivered a baby. "Let's do this then." He started collecting instruments that he thought might be useful. "Remember the breathing exercises."

"Breathing exercises?!" Rita scoffed. "I needed drugs! This is all going wrong."

Iain inhaled deeply. He inspected Rita and sighed when he realised he could already see the baby crowning. "I can see the head." Well at least the baby seemed like it was in the correct position he thought, small blessings.

"Already?!" Dixie began anxiously tapping her hands on the steering wheel, this was rapidly becoming a disastrous situation.

"Yeah, Rita you need to give a nice big push so we can get the head out." He sounded surprisingly calm despite the freaking out he was experiencing inside. Rita made a noise so loud that Iain was surprised it could come out of such a petite person. "Okay, head is out now, you can have brief breather." He pretended he was in control and knew what he was doing; in truth he'd just watched a lot of people give birth on TV.

Iain cupped the head in his hands, becoming increasingly aware of the fact that once this baby was born he would become responsible for them. He decided that that was why labour was supposed to be longer than this, to last minute prepare yourself for becoming a parent.

"Right, we'll get the shoulders out now, when you're ready Rita." He was amazed that he was successfully delivering his child, on his own, in essentially his work office.

"Keep going." All too soon the baby was out and in his hands; he saw it was a girl. It surprised him how small she was; hardly bigger than his hands, however the cry emitted was exceptionally loud for such a tiny creature. Iain conceded that she was already taking after her mother.

He placed the baby into Rita's arms before becoming completely overwhelmed by the process and passing out.


	13. Chapter 13

"Right this is Rita Freeman, 38, who just gave birth to a beautiful baby, after a surprisingly short labour." Dixie relayed to Zoe as they transferred her from the back of the ambulance into a wheelchair. "And this is Iain Dean, 34, who apparently can survive war zones and extreme medical emergencies but not the birth of his own daughter."

"Oh har har Dix." Iain couldn't take his eyes of his daughter to form a good enough response.

"I haven't been able to check either of them over as I was driving, but they seem to be doing well."

"Okay thanks Dixie, let's take them through to cubicles for now and check for a bed in maternity for Rita." Zoe spoke to Max as he wheeled Rita through. "Well done Mum" Zoe grinned at Rita. Rita beamed back up at her.

"I bet it's like all that pain never happened." Rita glared at Iain; even Zoe looked at him with an expression of amusement. "What? That's what people say isn't it?" Iain became defensive.

"You couldn't even cope with seeing it happening, so be quiet." Rita returned her focus to her daughter; shaking her head at Iain's naivety.

After all three had been checked over and were deemed to be fine and not require any more treatment they were not short of visitors. Rita was pretty sure that she didn't need as many medical professionals checking on her as she had; but, despite her exhaustion, she was happy to show off her new baby. They had had to stay in the ED for longer than they had hoped as there were no beds available in the maternity ward for Rita. When they were allowed a single moment alone all Rita and Iain were able to do was to fawn over their new daughter.

Robyn caught them in one of these quiet moments and began to take photos of them on her phone; she knew they'd appreciate it later, they looked like the perfect family.

"So have you thought of a name yet?" Robyn startled them and they glanced at each other seemingly having a silent conversation. "Sorry, didn't mean to intrude, I came to say they're ready for you now, there's a bed."

"It's about time! Typical NHS!" Rita laughed at herself. "Yeah we have a name I think, don't we?" She asked Iain, they had decided on one but she wasn't sure if he'd changed his mind. Iain nodded. "Elinor, her name is Elinor." Robyn squealed, she couldn't wait to spread the news. "Elinor Freeman-Dean" Looking down at Elinor, Iain and Rita knew that the name suited her, and them, so well. It was the perfect fit.

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 **Hi everyone, thanks for getting this far! I hope you've enjoyed reading this story that just manifested itself in my head, forcing me to write it down for not only you, but me as well. I have really loved writing it, so seriously thank you for reading it and for the lovely reviews. I may come back to it one day or write a sequel or something as I do have some vague ideas for where Rita and Iain go next, but for now I really have to focus on all of my school deadlines that are coming up fast and this story has really not helped my procrastination! Thank you again, big love to you all!**


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